For 123, yes, refunds are normal.  Doesn't happen much on other agencies anymore and never so far on SS, FT or Canva but common enough on 123.  Another reason why you shouldn't submit there.

I'm not sure that management has done anything there the past several years - they seem to be just coasting along.  They used to be a strong number three for me, but now falling back with the low-earner pack.  Too bad.

What the others have said - go with the 1099s, as that's what gets reported to the IRS.  If no 1099, then what you were actually paid during the year - it's not earnings until it's paid out.  Except for FT, which reports on earnings regardless of whether they have been paid, but that is reflected in their 1099.  Very confusing.  And for Canva, you can get a credit for the foreign taxes that they will deduct.

Mine came on the 8th as well.

123 does tax forms?  Last year I think they never bothered and the year before that it was the wrong form.  I do it like Mantis - just add up what they paid me during the year and report that.

It should also be my best month in the two years I've been doing stock, but my best month is easy to beat. This is a good time for me to test the theory of a cap because if there is a cap I won't have too many sales from here to the end of the month. Time will tell.

One buyer found your portfolio and downloaded a large number of images on the same topic - that is normal and a good reason to have many in a series.  It happens to me more often on DT than SS though.  I predict your sales for the rest of the month will be normal - no cap for a few extra DLs.  For me the month so far is the usual, except today I had a clip sale for $105 - don't get those very often but glad when they come.

I had actually started uploading to them again last year for the first time since their commission cuts because their RPDL was OK compared to other agencies.  Now I've been reduced to level 1, and selling images for 22 cents per subscription DL is too low so they are back off the list.  Will wait to see what else they come up with but I suspect this is the end for them.  I still get enough ELs and other higher DLs that I will leave my images there for now, but no new images will go there and I won't send the big backlog that built up after the last commission cut either.  Too bad - screwing contributors is not a good path to prosperity.

I haven't bothered.  As long as the FT site works I'm too lazy to learn a new one unless there is a clear benefit to more sales.  Sorry.

Now I will wait some time (one month?) to see if one of these images will sell (I hope not - lol)
Then I will delete them.

They will probably become best sellers.  Let us know what happens - travel photography will be much easier if we don't have to lug a bunch of gear around.

I'm new in stock

Come back in six months and you will probably answer your own question.

Sorry, the CA statement was an aside, I didn't mean to imply you had said that.  Just trying to point out that being heavy on regulations is not a negative.

As to schools, one of my sisters teaches seventh grade in public schools in Maryland.  She has taught at a predominantly minority, inner-city school and now has moved to one with more affluent students.  One of my nieces has done substitute teaching in Virginia and South Carolina.  I suspect I know much more about teachers and teaching than you do.  To say that schools are teaching liberal propaganda is a lie.

We could agree on many things - that gives me hope that compromise could be reached.  One of those is that teachers are underpaid and not always supported by their administrations.  Teachers in many schools have to spend way too much time dealing with disciplinary problems and can't teach those who want to learn.  Some of this is due to well intentioned but poorly implemented liberal policies that give too much power to the students - they know the teachers can't do much about them and so they misbehave.  That needs to change.  Having too much school choice is not the answer - that just takes tax money away from public schools and puts it in the pockets of for-profit and religious schools, many of which have very poor records and/or teach division.  Improving education is easy - increase salaries to attract the best and brightest and give them enough resources to do their jobs.  Getting taxpayers to pay for it is the difficult part.

Neither do people who claim diversity and compassion, for their fake faces while they bully and intimidate anyone who opposes their political agenda. I'm not going to make excuses for any of these people on either side. That's what's wrong with America right now, not all the fake news and diversionary issues. We are divided by hate and anger and most of all party politics, causing that situation. Both sides are unwilling to negotiate or act in any moderate civilized agreement. Polarized into such a divided nation that we have lost the ability to be functional.

That's what I say.

So say we all (for anyone who used to watch Battlestar Gallactica).

Yes, I agree.  This started mostly with Fox "News" and their highly partisan reporting - they were and still are the original fake news.  I think it's also a problem with the two-party system and the primaries used to select candidates.  To get the base activated, and thus the party nomination, candidates from each party have to go to the extremes, forcing the parties to diverge.  Most people I think are in the middle and just want logical, reasonable solutions to the problems at hand, not fights over dogma.  The current Republican party is now so extreme that their sainted Ronald Reagan would be kicked out as a flaming liberal.  We need to get rid of Iowa and New Hampshire having such a large say in who runs for office and instead let New York and California go first, or at least select primary times by lottery so it varies from year to year.

The problem has been exacerbated by gerrymandering (mostly by Republicans although Dems have done it occasionally) which creates "safe" districts where representatives can be as extreme as they want and will still get elected - on both sides.  The current system is that the party in power makes up the districts every ten years after the census.  Last time Republicans were mostly in control and made districts that were so extremely gerrymandered in Republican favor that they fortunately have been ruled unconstitutional in several states.  This leads to representation that does not reflect the makeup or will of the voters.  Now Trump is trying to mess with the census as another way to steal elections in the future.  What we should have is districts that are as even as possible, forcing the parties to compete every election - that way everyone would have to pull votes from the other party to get elected, hopefully forcing everyone into the center rather than the extremes.  To be fair, it should be the losing party that gets to make up the next districts, not the winners - our current system is like giving the Super Bowl champions the first picks in the draft every year.

A big problem now that we really don't understand is that a lot of the division and hatred is being promoted from outside the country, in a coordinated and very successful effort to promote exactly this kind of division.  There is no doubt that the Russians are behind this and that it has been their policy for many years.  What I don't understand is, if twitter bots are well known, why aren't they stopped?  Can't they be identified and shut down?  Can't the fake facebook accounts be identified and deleted?  Trump really needs to get behind this and promote ways to make our country safer rather than being the biggest dupe.  Hopefully the rest of the Republicans will find their long-lost integrity and help Democrats and our security agencies to protect the country from such outside interference in the future.  Then maybe we could get back to civil discourse rather than the rabid attacks that are common nowadays.